Rapid Changes
by Bob-The-Magic-Fish
Summary: I'm not good at writing these, so just read the story. This is a rewrite. GAbby? you decide.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**** I feel an explanation is in order, so that you, the readers, know what the blazes I'm doing to my story. So here goes nought. I am rewriting it as I have gone back and reread it and thought 'Why the blazes did I write that?' So now you know, I'm a perfectionist.**

**Disclaimer:**** I do NOT own any of the wonderful NCIS gang. Any other similarities are totally coincidence. **

It was 07:05 and Tony had just gotten into work and from the elevator it looked like that he was the only there. But as he exited the lift he could see the trademark pigtails of Abby from where she was sat on Kate's chair.

"What you doing up here?" He asked noting that she was sat staring at Gibbs' desk, where he was slumped over sound asleep. She looked tired.

"I've been sat here for," Her voice sounded sore from the party she'd been to. She paused, looked at the clock, and carried on, "nearly two-and-a-half hours, waiting for him to wake up, so I can show him that." She pointed to a folder on Gibbs' desk. "Gibbs hasn't moved since I got in at around half four. I don't think he's been home." Tony jumped as Gibbs snored slightly.

They sat in silence until the lift came up about half an hour later, bringing Kate and McGee with it. "Is he still not awake? This should help." She put a coffee on the desk by the keyboard and stood back while DiNozzo started counting, "One…two…three…fou-" Gibbs stirred before Tony could say any more. "Abbs why are you sat on Kate's chair? More importantly, why are you sat on her chair up here?" He took a long drink of his coffee before giving the others a look of warning.

"I came up to bring you that stuff you wanted and you were just, there, asleep, so I thought I would come back later and give it to you when you woke. But then I found I had left my keys to my lab in my car and my car keys in the lab, God knows how, so I stayed anyway." By this time Abby wore that small smile that said she had messed up already. "You wouldn't still have those spare keys I gave you, would you?" Tony and McGee's heads snapped up, Kate however had known about this and one or two other little things well before the boys had suspected a thing.

"Yeah, car or lab?" asked Gibbs, while McGee's jaw dropped so low, that it was in danger of it hitting the table.

"Um, lab, please." He handed the keys over and Abby walked off to try and sort out the mess she had created with her own keys.

An IM came up on Tony and Kate's screens:

'_She didn't even give me a key to her lab!!'_

Tony typed back:

'_Oo, harsh! Probie is jealous and he can't do anything about it!!'_

This time it was Kate who shocked them:

'_You know just because she's not going out with McGee any more doesn't mean she can't go out with other guys.'_

McGee couldn't believe what he was seeing, he didn't want what Kate was implying to be true, but he still wrote:

'_You mean they are going out?'_

Kate's reply took a minute or two of thought before she typed:

'_No, but he took her out to dinner once or twice. Not for her birthday either.'_

Before they could get any farther Gibbs' phone rang and after a minute of talking he hung up and told them to get their stuff.

A Marine had been caught not only driving drunk, but with two ounce's worth of grass on him as well. Gibbs didn't see why he should have to deal with this mad-soon-to-be-ex-Marine, but the Director had sent him and his team along regardless. It turned out he had been under investigation, for arms and drug dealing, and was due to be picked up the next day anyway.

By the time they had managed to get hold of Abby, the marine had keep them running around for practical a whole day, it was dawn and the cleaning staff had made, yet another, complaint about the number of coffee cups in the bins. Exiting the lift Gibbs was met by an unusual sound; complete silence. The swish of the doors opening made Abby spin round on her chair, and instantly regret the action. Rushing to the bin she threw up.

"Exactly how much did have to you drink last night?"

"Not much."

"And how much of that 'not much' was alcoholic?"

"Oh, you were asking about alcoholic drinks. Um, enough to give me a hangover; so at least two bottles of vodka. Or a cup of my special party mix." Her 'party mix' was legendary throughout NCIS; she had once laced the punch at the Christmas party with just a hundred millilitres of the stuff. Everyone had either gone home drunk, or hadn't got home at all. Everyone knew it was her that had done it, but no one cared enough to say anything, it had improved the party no end. Gibbs left her to her misery and left, smiling and thinking how much Tony would tease her about this; she had been the only not to get absolutely trashed at the X-mas party.

**AN:**** end of new and, hopefully, improved chapter one. Don't worry if you didn't notice any changes, they are pretty subtle.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:**** Ditto the previous one.**

The music was blaring by noon and Abby was hard at work, as some one crept up behind her. They grabbed her arms and forced her to the floor, then a gun was fired and another.

Abby felt the blood and the pain. The sweet darkness of unconsciousness gripped her quickly.

From his desk Gibbs heard it. A loud cracking bang, one he had heard only too often, but not like this. This one brought terror with it, he knew that Abby wasn't testing any weapons today; she'd have told him, knowing he'd worry.

Anyway the ballistics lab was soundproof to prevent people from panicking.

Gibbs seized his SIG from the drawer and raced towards the stairs, Tony, Kate and McGee behind him. While he ran, Gibbs readied his gun and quietened his footsteps. The others did the same, still wondering what Gibbs would do.

Ducky had heard the shot from downstairs, even with the music he couldn't mistaken the sound of gunshot, and came tearing up the stairs, not bothering with the dilatory elevator, leaping into action the moment he saw Abby, keeping the bleeding down as much as he could. By the time Palmer had gotten up to the lab, Gibbs had phoned the paramedics and had handcuffed the wounded shooter, while Tony had slowed the bleeding from the man's left knee.

A few minutes later the paramedics rushed into the room, followed by Kate, who had guided them to the lab. Abby had become incredibly pale, making the blood look a strange vivid red, which Kate had never seen before. Then a thought entered her head: 'I'm surprised the guy isn't dead, having shot Abby.'

Ducky may have specialised in the dead, but he was ok with the living as well. The wound was to her lower left chest; he supposed that she had struggled against her captor just as the shot was fired.

She would have been dead, if she hadn't.

She might still die.

He had done all he could for her, put pressure on the wound and kept her calm as she drifted between the different consciousness' and, once he'd handed her over to the medics, went to stand by Gibbs.

Gibbs looked at the scene for a moment longer before turning to look Ducky in the eye, with his eyes pleading for a quick fix, one that, Ducky knew damn well he would know, was not forthcoming.

"I'm sorry Gibbs, but I don't know what to say or do, apart from wait."

"I know. I just feel so helpless, I hate to see her like that, but knowing I can't do anything makes it worse."

"I see." Ducky picked up Gibbs emotion quickly; he always had been able to work him out, "Have you told her that? Listen you go with her and we'll be along as soon as possible, ok?"

With a quick nod Gibbs exited behind the medics, who had Abby and held her hand. He clutched at it tightly, as if his hold could some how keep her alive, reverse all this, make it so everything was as it should be. But it couldn't and he knew it.

The elevator was slow as usual, but today it seemed to know to hurry itself a little. Still gripping Abby's hand, Gibbs found he knew what Ducky was talking about:

'_Have you told her that?'_

No he hadn't, but that would be opening himself up to somewhere he thought he had banished from his mind years ago, with the deaths of his wife and daughter. But he'd forgotten about his heart.

He came up with a resolution: if she was still alive for her birthday then he would tell her, if not then he would still tell her, so either way he would tell her on her birthday exactly how he felt about her.

'_But what if she doesn't feel the same and just rejects you?' _

His second thought's contribution to the inner debate was received with a dance partner.

'_Or what if she does feel the same and you scare her off because you come out with it bluntly?'_

'_Either way she will be told, so there.'_

Good, his sensible, no-nonsense, once-a-marine-always-a-marine attitude was back from its short trip to nowhere.

Four hours later the whole team was sat in the friends and relatives room of Bethesda Naval Hospital, when a middle-aged doctor came in.

"I take it you're the NCIS lot?" Nods answered his question. "Ok, well luckily we have managed to avoid any life threatening damage, but Abigail is not out of the woods yet. Umm, which one of you is Jethro Gibbs?"

"That would be me."

"Could I have a word with you please? This way." Gibbs followed the doctor out into the corridor and through into an office.

"On Abigail's records it says you are her only emergency contact, but they were updated about five years ago, so will need rechecking soon. Do you still consent to being her contact?"

"Erm, yes, of course. Will she be ok?"

The doctor's eyes hardened suggesting he had to this often.

"I'm only called in if they think I might be able to do something. Personally I think she has a good chance, but with the amount of blood she lost we have no way to tell if damage has occurred to the brain, due to it being starved of oxygen. So yes, I do think she will survive. But whether she will fully recover? I don't know. We can only hope and pray until she wakes up." Leaving he left Gibbs with more to think about.

'_What if she doesn't remember who we are? Who am I kidding? What if she doesn't remember who I am?'_

He needed air, coffee and a good friend. Walking back to the rest he signalled Ducky to follow him.

Once out of the hospital with it's clean, sterile smell Gibbs felt better.

"What am I going to do? The doc. said there might be a chance that she has brain damage."

"Did he say what type?"

"What? No."

"Well don't worry then! It's more likely there will be nothing wrong, or if there is it'll be something like temporary short-term memory loss. _Temporary, _Gibbs, as in not forever and she'll never forget you, nobody, not even Abby, is brave enough to try that."

Half an hour later Gibbs and Ducky returned to the waiting room with coffee for everyone, except for Ducky himself, who, being a true Englishman at heart, had tea.

"Any news?" McGee shook his head, eyes red and puffy, worry managing to make a guest appearance on his face. Looking round they saw that everyone had their own concerned looks, but that only McGee was really beating himself up about the situation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:**** You know the drill. They ain't mine, no matter how much I paddy on the floor.**

It was nearing midnight when the doctor came to see if anyone was still in the room: there was, no one had left, but there was only one awake: Gibbs. The doctor quietly beckoned him and led him to a room in the ICU.

There, in the pearly glow of a soft light, was Abby. Going into her right arm was an IV of blood and a machine was beeping along to her heart. Gibbs just stood there staring into Abby's face.

"What's the date?" Gibbs mind suddenly started to whir.

"July 2nd, why?" Gibbs jumped, he hadn't meant to wonder out-loud. He also hadn't expected the answer to come from Abby, who was not only awake, but also fully aware of what was going on around her.

"Four days until your birthday. Twenty-one again?" Showing his humorous side, Gibbs sat on the chair by the bed. He coaxed a laugh out of her.

"No, you know damn well it's thirty-one." Her hand had gone to the wound in her chest, making it obvious that laughing hurt.

'_Right, note to self: don't make Abby laugh. Yeah, right.'_

"How long have you been awake?"

His hand found hers.

With a half-hearted shrug she said:

"An hour maybe. The doc. went to look for you, but you'd disappeared. From the smell of sawdust on you, I'd say you've been in your basement taking your emotions out on a certain wooden sailing vessel." It was: he'd got back about fifteen minutes ago.

"I went to do some thinking. Listen, when you get out of here you're to come and stop at mine for a bit, just until I know you'll be alright."

'_Good, that's half way to telling her. You're on a roll, why not just tell her now?' _

"That would be nice, but wouldn't that put you out a bit? I mean you've only got one bed, though I guess most nights you just sleep in your boat." Abby neglected to mention the real reason, she was scared that she would end up telling him how she felt, because she was pretty sure that he wouldn't feel he same.

After a minute's thinking it dawned on Gibbs what Abby had just said.

"Abigail Sciuto, since when have I been 'put out' by helping you?"

Another minute went by in silence.

"There was that time once when I asked you to drive me to Canada." Abby smirked at him.

"Ahh, but I was in Hawaii at the time. And Ducky had forbidden me from leaving the hotel after that mad man tried to shoot me."

"Ok, I'll go back to yours, but only if you bring the spare bed from mine, and you let me go back to work when I say."

"You know that will never happen, but if that's what it takes, ok. Just don't blow my house up. I've finally gotten round to repainting the kitchen door after someone drew a skull on it with marker-pen" Grinning a grin that screamed got-no-clue-what-you're-on-about Abby said "I had just drunk a whole bottle of JD, and you well know it."

A few minutes went by without either of them speaking.

"I'm having McGee do the interview, the bastard's hiding something. He was thrilled at the idea of being left alone with the slimy git."

"Why McGee? Why not Tony or Kate? They've more experience in their little toes than he does in his whole body."

"I couldn't trust anyone to take this interrogation seriously, not like he could. Tony would just flirt with the first solid object he saw and Kate would just beat the crap out of him, so she wouldn't be able to keep her job if I let her. McGee, he loves you, anyone can see that, so he would keep at this guy until he gets answers that would satisfy us both." Abby's face still betrayed some apprehensive thoughts, and she knew that Gibbs had seen them.

"And because I love you, like him so I know he'd be best to do it." That was reason enough for her. And he'd finally said the words that had haunted him for years.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:**** As per usual I am writing that I don't own any of the lovely, adorable, sweet, puppy-like… forget it; most of the characters are men. They are not 'puppy-like'. **

**AN:**** Or are they? You decide. So sorry i haven't updated sooner, if it wasn't one thing it was another. I will try my best now that i am on holiday. ****And PLEASE, i am begging you, FEED ME!!**

Four days later and the team, except Gibbs, who was asleep in his chair at the office, all arrived early at the hospital. Abby was still asleep when they got there, but not for long as DiNozzo knocked a chair over. It was a slight side effect to the amount he had drunk for both him and Abby the night before.

They had all brought presents. Tony brought a Black Rose Bonsai, Kate an A-Z on 'Why you are the strangest person on Earth.' She'd spent the last month writing it. McGee had brought her a picture of a red blood cell being ripped apart as a virus burst from it, Ducky had go to the most trouble to get his as he had made it. It was little well sculpted body with a stomach which when pressed sort of expanded and spewed a lovely mixture of red froth, making Tony spew as well. The rest of NCIS had just signed a card, adding get-well wishes as well.

Gibbs was on the night duty, the team were taking it in turns to sit with Abby, and had just settled into the chair when his smug look took over his face. He sat there for a moment or two longer then got up and sat on her bed.

"So how was your birthday? Had fun?" She had to admit it; she had enjoyed herself, Ducky watching Tony watch her, and trying not to fall over every time he got up, Kate dragging him off to work afterwards.

"Yeah, but no present from you. It isn't a proper birthday unless you have presents off of all the people who love you."

Gibbs pulled a rectangular box from his jacket, opened it, with trembling fingers, and gave it to Abby, who sat staring, stunned.

It was a silver chain with a silver skull on it, covered, meticulously, in diamonds. The eye sockets were left empty, but were empty to perfection. All of it was done to perfection.

"Gibbs…" She could barely whisper this time.

"I love you Abs." He said it outright, no dancing around it, no disguising it, the words just flowed, and as prefect as the moment she had been when he had first seen her.

_Eight years ago:_

_A Monday morning, nothing special going on. The director walks down the stairs with a very young lady, who is in all black._

_They come over to his desk, the director speaks first;_

"_Special Agent Gibbs, this is Abigail Sciuto. Miss Sciuto this is Agent Gibbs. Make sure you take good care of her Gibbs; we don't need to lose another forensic scientist." He gets up and walks from behind the desk._

"_Your lab's downstairs, this way please." Taking his offered arm, they walked towards the elevator. Once the doors had rattled shut she looked at him properly; middle-aged, graying, sensible clothing and shoes, hair cut to the marine style; added up he was probably an ex-marine, came home but couldn't give up._

"_So how many have you gotten rid of?" Her question was simply; it didn't require a long answer._

"_Seven in the past year. So what's with the outfit?" The lift was really slow he could afford a few minutes conversation._

"_The wearing of black is sort of compulsory for Goths."_

_When the lift opened and Gibbs had shown her the lab he had held out his hand and said that he looked forward to working with her, and she had told him to call her Abby._

She had told him that black was compulsory, yet she was currently in some bluish things the hospital had given her to wear. He got his phone out and went out in to the corridor. Dialling Kate's number he looked at Abby's notes; it made no sense to him but it reassured him.

"Todd." She had answered on the fifth ring.

"Get the clothes Abby has stashed in her lab, bottom drawer of her desk." He hung up without another word and re-entered the room. When he sat back down on the bed she didn't ask; he had that look of secrecy on his face.

Kate was doing some photocopying while waiting for Tony to get back with the Chinese when her phone rang. Answering it she found it was Gibbs. She listened to him and as she opened her mouth to reply he hung up. Turning she found McGee had stopped typing and was watching her.

"I've got an errand to run for the boss, make sure Tony doesn't go anywhere near my stuff."

Once in Abby's lab Kate opened the bottom drawer in Abby's desk as instructed. Kate pulled a holdall out from the drawer, checked it and shut the drawer.

At the hospital Kate found Gibbs trying to beat Abby at a card game of her own design, and failing miserably. She had thought Gibbs was the best bluffer she knew, but it seemed that that was wrong. Putting the bag on the edge of the bed she whispered to Gibbs "Daniels.", knowing that he would get she meant his Jack of Clubs. He looked at it then at the cards all ready down, Kate knew what she was talking about, and the only card that had stopped Abby ending the game was in his hand, he hoped.

"Caitlin Todd!! I expected more of you!! And I hope you haven't been slinging this around." She reached into the bag and rooted around for a moment then brought out a small black leather bag; opening it she pulled out a PDA neither companions had seen before. "I've linked it to NCIS and to my own computer at home. I just want to check my E-mail and keep an eye on things, I can't have people messing things up can I?" They all knew that she wanted to get up to date on the cases, not that she should be worrying about that, but they left it.

"Kate before you go, you will act as team-leader until tomorrow. I don't need Tony ruining my work. If he protests ring me. Ok, Agent Todd?" She nodded and left, waving to Abby as she exited. Abby waved back briefly, before ending the game by placing the rest of her cards down one after the other in three neat lines; two full suites and all four Aces and Kings.

The necklace had lain forgotten until Abby, trying to push herself up the bed a bit more, put her hand on it. Bringing it out again she looked very carefully at it; the design was that of a sculpture an English guy had made out of titanium and diamonds.


	5. Chapter 5

Gibbs had fallen asleep in the chair around one, but had woken again at four with a crick in his neck and a stiff back

**Disclaimer:**** You know what I'm going write here so there.**

Gibbs had fallen asleep in the chair around one, but had woken again at four with a crick in his neck and a stiff back. Getting up to stretch he caught sight of Abby. Some time when he'd been asleep she had changed into a pair of black cotton pyjamas with, even at this hour of dim light, violently pink skull-and-cross-bones motifs printed on them. Smiling Gibbs worked the crick out of his neck, and took the PDA from her hands. Looking at it he saw she'd fallen asleep whilst writing an e-mail. Smiling he put it on the small cupboard by the side of he bed.

"Morning." She was as sunny in the morning light as when she was when shut up in the dimness of her lab.

The PDA beeped. Gibbs handed it to Abby who quickly navigated the screen and opened an e-mail from McGee.

"Hey Gibbs, McGee says that the FBI is sniffing round the computer system. Oh, and Fornell has just turned up, like the boomerang he is." Abby nodded towards the doorway.

"Good morning Abigail. Jethro." Fornell was wearing his trench coat as usual and in his right hand was a black teddy. He handed it to Abby, who looked at it with suspicion.

"Don't worry, it won't explode the moment I leave the room. At least I didn't rig it up to."

"Why are you here?"

"Well I don't quite know myself but something tells me that there's something going on. I was just told to come, and I didn't know about the snooping around your system, honestly."

"Do you believe that?" The question cut Fornell out of the conversation, and then it was taken out of the audible range completely when Abby signed something to Gibbs, making him laugh.

"Can you two leave the forbidden love story until I go, please? Thank you. You're right; I did know that they would sneak around it, but not when." Fornell was still in the room.

"Fine, I'll let it go this once, but if you lot do it again you're mine." Gibbs pointed at the door, a sign that there was no more to be said.

Just as Fornell was about to go out of the door Abby called out to him, "You know Fornell, love isn't forbidden if you ignore the rules." He left with a smile, closing the door as he went.


	6. Chapter 6

Later that day, after a doctor and his group of interns had prodded and poked her, Abby was allowed to go home, to Gibbs' plac

**Disclaimer:**** Nope, still don't own them.**

Later that day, after a doctor and his group of interns had prodded and poked her, Abby was allowed to go home, to Gibbs' place. Tony had the pleasure of making sure she behaved herself, no mean feat when she hadn't had any caffeine since being admitted, and was threatening to do a runner at the first coffee shop they passed. Tony alleviated the situation, slightly, by promising that he would get her a Caff-Pow on the way. She still did a runner.

When Tony had found Abby again they continued out of the hospital. Abby taking with her a large cup of bitter black coffee, just like the type Gibbs drank.

When they got to Gibbs' place they found Kate trying to reason with a traffic warden, just forgetting the reasoning and going straight for the 'I'm-a-fed' argument.

The traffic warden had never heard of NCIS, so she reached for her badge. Unfortunately that revealed her gun, which made the warden panic, which made Tony nervous, the situation was not good for any bystanders.

"Oy, Kate, why'd Gibbs let you have all the fun?" Abby then turned on the warden, a nightmare in black; she was renown through out the local wardens for being argumentative, and right. "And why, may I ask, can she not park outside a privet house in a quiet street, through which the most traffic is when one of the older residents has a heart-attack?"

He didn't know so sloped off towards a van farther down the street.

Leading her way up to the door Abby reached out. Kate was about to point out that the door would be locked, but when Abby twisted the handle it swung open easily. She decided to ignore the questioning looks from Kate and Tony. The explanation would have been simple but then she'd have to explain even more stuff to them. As Fornell had said, that would be against the rules.

At half past ten Gibbs walked in to find that Abby had started to take over; there was a laptop on his dining table. He also found that the camp bed that had been with his boat was now in his living room along with Abby, who had grown bored so she'd had raided the kitchen cupboards and ended up making a sandwich and was now munching her way through a bag of chips. On the TV screen was an old black and white movie, with a scary monster and plenty of screaming women. Abby was so engrossed in it she didn't notice Gibbs at first, when she did though she offered the bag of chips.

"Why has she got no head yet she's still running round and somehow screaming? Or is it pointless to ask?"

"It's pointless to ask. Can I come to work tomorrow? I'm bored brainless here, unless I start on a boat, which wouldn't actually be a bad idea." She did a complicated shuffle and ended up with her head on his shoulder. He reached up and patted her head. "Not until you can tell me how many time you've asked me that."

"Ok, I got here about half two, I called you about once every ten minutes. You stop answering after the fortieth time. So I make it to be forty-two." She did a good imitation of a puppy, her green eyes large and sickly sweet, her lower lip turning itself inside out. Gibbs melted under such an intense attack.

"I have no idea how you got that, but fine. You can come back."


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:**** If any one would care to sell me the characters I would be ecstatic, but till then THEY ARE NOT MINE.**

When they reached work the next day Abby was greeted with smiles and hugs. Due to her refusing to let anyone into her lab every DC case had been given extra time to investigate and solve the varying crimes. It also meant a backlog of work for her.

Tony was, as ever, joking when they walked across the bullpen. This time he had his chair in front of Kate's desk and was making over-exaggerated googly eyes at her, the sort that only occur in movies.

Sure enough he was on about a classic. Gibbs stood behind him and motioned for no one to react.

"Tony, why are you not doing any work? I mean if you want I could fire you, then you'd have even more time prat around in."

"Gee, boss, you know you'd miss me."

"Would I really? Remember DiNozzo, play with _my_ time I'll play with _you_." Abby, who had stood grinning all the time the men were exchanging brain cells for testosterone, now tipped Tony off the chair and sat on it herself.

"Nice to see you as well Tony. Hi Kate. Bye Kate. Bye Tony." Gibbs had seized the back of the chair and was now dragging her, backwards, towards the elevator. She waved as she went.

"Hey, Boss! You would miss me, wouldn't you?" Gibbs ignored the question.

It was good to get back into the lab, even if it was a tip and the amount of sample jars filled a whole shopping trolley. She had to admit though; the cleaners had done a good job at cleaning the blood up. Gibbs pulled her farther into the lab and she saw that, covering her desk, were red roses. As she got closer she saw there were labels on them, each from a concerned employee of NCIS. Later she learned that every couple of days new ones had been laid and the old ones taken away.

While the computers booted up Abby looked at her mail, which she had brought with her from Gibbs' place. A few bills, an invite to a science fair, the usual junk. Except the last letter, it was to thick for a bill, to formal to be another invite. Turning it over she carefully slit it open.

**AN: I have decided, i need to take action. So here goes. I will NOT post any more chapters until I get seven reviews. I don't know why seven, but it's the number I have chosen.  
Yours faithfully,  
Hellywelly369.**


	8. Chapter 8

Gibbs had come home late, nothing unusual in that, except that he brought food with him

**AN:**** So sorry I haven't updated sooner, but I have been away, with no access to a computer.**

**Disclaimer:**** Ditto the last one.**

Gibbs had come home late, nothing unusual in that, except that he brought food with him. They were sat on the sofa eating when the phone rang, mouth full, Abby answered.

"Ello? Woo wis rit? No wit's Wabby. 'Ere wit's 'or woo."

"Gibbs? Ok, bring them in to NCIS. We'll meet you there. Hand them over to no one except me. Ok? Good." He hung up and threw some trousers to Abby, who'd been walking round his house in one of his shirts at that moment.

Tony and one of the cops were at loggerheads over the football when they got in to the bullpen. Kate and the other escorting police officer were looking on in contempt. Gibbs gave Tony short, sharp slap round the back of the head and continued to his desk.

"Names?" He indicated the pair in handcuffs.

"Denis Warwick and his partner in crime; Bart Southler. They've both refused to be cooperative, but one of our guys recognised them from that photo you faxed us of the other known suspects in that shooting. We haven't got the budget to keep them, food costs money, as does water and electricity, you know." Gibbs decided to totally ignore the man.

"Tony, Kate you know where they're heading, so go. Abby go with McGee and find something to do. If she goes near anything caffeinated or sugar filled, I will kick your backsides out of here!" The guy Tony had been arguing with gave Gibbs a funny look.

"Abby's our lab tech, and she loves nothing more than to pass out on a sugar or caffeine over-dose." He walked after the rest of his team, leaving the two men to find their own way out.

Looking through the glass Gibbs looked at Kate and the man she was interrogating. Though the man wasn't giving much up, apart from a wish for a lawyer. Suddenly she got an unexpected response; the man smiled, then sighed, picked at a mole on his hand and said "My name is unimportant, but what is important is that I know where my boss, who is the one who sent him here in the first place, is. And I'm not talking."

Abby had been stood in the side room to the watch, McGee had had to go to sort out a computer error, but when she heard this she ran from the room. She didn't know where she was going, just that she had to keep going, away from that man. She ran through the doors to autopsy, knew she was safe and collapsed.

Gibbs left the room after her. He took his time knowing that she'd be with Ducky. He also wanted to give her time to stop crying. He didn't like seeing her cry, it made him feel as if he'd upset her in some way. He took the elevator; she'd have taken the stairs, he rode in for perhaps twenty minutes before getting out.

"What happened?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Ducky, just tell me what happened."

"Well, she ran into here and collapsed, feinted, passed out. Gibbs which ever way you put it something is going on, and I want to know what it is."

"Her shooting was an attempted murder, but the guy isn't going to talk soon. He says he knows where the hell his boss is, but I don't know whether to believe him."

"No wonder the poor girl feinted, I think it was the best that could have happened in that situation."

Abby had had enough of laying still, the metal table had been covered with a blanket, and decided to join in the conversation.

"You he might not be as mad as you think he is. He might just need the money he's undoubtedly being paid."

The doors opened as Abby sat up.

"Hey, duck, have you…? Oh, there you are boss. That guy's a totally nut case." He waved to Abby, who weakly waved back.

"DiNozzo, special job for you. Go and get me coffee and a Caff-Pow, and if I find out you sent someone else I'll give your job to McGee." Tony left at a run and ran straight into the lift doors.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:**** Hiya, just one teeny-weeny-little thing, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW!! I'm now desperate to know what you think. I don't even care if you just give me one word, just so long as it isn't 'nice' or 'good'.**

**Disclaimer:**** Yak, yak. The status of the ownership has not changed so, blab blab, blab.**

Sitting in Tony's stolen chair, sipping the sickly sweet Caff-Pow Abby watched Gibbs typing. He was painfully slow and she was bored, so she grabbed the keyboard and the sheet he was copying from and started typing. Five minutes later it was done, and Abby had drawn the quiet attention of all the near-by people. They all wondered what would happen next, whether Gibbs would explode or if he'd slap her round the head as he had done that time McGee had offered to help. But the words that left his mouth shocked everyone into silence,

"Thank you." He noticed the rest staring at him, so turned on them instead: "Get back to work, unless you like late nights in the pouring rain looking for a certain one-inch-square piece of mud." The effect was instantaneous; everyone was at their desk, typing faster than they ever had before. Tony looked between the boss and Abby. Except the boss wasn't at his desk, and then he felt the slap across the back of his head.

"Going back to work now, boss."

"Good. Where's your chair?" Tony had been stood up for the whole night, the chair still being with Abby.

"Abby's got it boss, I could go and get another." Gibbs had walked back to his desk. Heaving the girl up he threw her across his shoulder and pushed the chair in the direction of a grateful DiNozzo. He put her on McGee's empty chair, he was still trawling through files on the buggered system, behind his desk and turned the computer on for her.

Not for the first time an IM popped up Kate's screen;

'Do you think there's something going on between them?'

She considered her answer, then typed;

'I don't know for sure, but probably. I know she is still living at his and that she's had her mail redirected.'

'How do you know this, exactly?'

'Tony, I'm a woman. According to you men, it's our job to ask questions like that.'

'So??'

'I asked her whether she'd moved back to her apartment, she said she hadn't, so I asked what was happening with her mail, she said she had it delivered to his.'

'What an interesting problem this presents. What about the rules? Or is everybody forgetting those?'

'Tony! I think it's sweet.'

'Not me, Kate, honest.'

'Did you know that Timmy has your internal IM bugged? No wonder he always knows what going on around here."

"Yeah. Say how much of that did you read?"

"All of it. And no there is not anything of YOUR concern going on between us. Thank you very much, agent DiNozzo." And with that she went back to her game of Asteroids, which Tim had gotten from Grey Olltwit's.

An hour passed in silence, and Gibbs ran out of coffee and patience for his computer. He decided to go from a walk down to his usual destination. As he put his coat on Abby looked up, smiled, and got her own coat. Tony smirked as they went past. Even Kate winced as both Abby and Gibbs smacked him round the back of his head.

The elevator doors opened, uncharacteristically, as soon as Gibbs pressed the button. Stepping aside for the agent already in there, the two made their way in. the lift had hardly moved before Abby flicked the emergency switch.

"You know why Tony was smirking?" The question was unnecessary, as it was clear that that was why she's stopped the elevator.

"Yep."

"You going to telling me what it was about?"

"Do you think I should?" she knew that that would wind him up.

"Well I would like to know why I've probably just given my best field agent a concussion, so yes, I would like to know."

"Ok, Tony and Kate where having a conversation about whether or not there was something going on between us."

"And is there?"

"I don't know." She watched Gibbs for any hint of emotion, finding nothing but a mirrored search.

"Why not?" She simply shrugged, not knowing how to answer him. "It's completely up to you. I'd make a try of it, but only if really wanted to."

"But what about the rules? And Tony and Kate?"

"Sod them both. And rule 12. And if we used rules 6 and 7 then we should be all right. If not then rule 18 still stands." She took a minute to think about what he'd said and came to an answer.

"Ok, but only if we do it beneath the rules. And we keep it out of the office."

"Fine by me." She went to reach for the switch, but he grabbed her hand before it got halfway. He pulled her into a tight hug, and whispered something to her.

**AN:**** Oh, aren't I a horrid person? Leaving that on a cliff-hanger like that?**

**Just a little note Grey Olltwit's is a freeware thing don't ask me, but I don't own it so, again a sort of disclaimer was needed.**


	10. Chapter 10

AN: Ok so I'm back and I'm steaming with ideas so bear with I think quicker than I type

**AN:**** Ok so I'm back and I'm steaming with ideas so bear with I think quicker than I type.**

**Yours faithfully**

**Hellywelly369**

**Disclaimer:**** Ditto the last.**

Half an hour later they arrived back in the bullpen, soaking wet, but neither cared, not any more. As he sat at his desk Gibbs started thinking, he didn't feel guilty, but he couldn't help think how Shannon would feel. He'd never thought about it before, she'd have thought the others were unworthy of her time, but Abby, now there was a different matter completely. She would probably spend some time looking at her and then decide that she was worthy of her place beside him. It was time he got some one like that again, after everything he'd gone through, losing them, the ex-years, his job, life in general. Yes it was his turn to be happy, and he hoped he'd have her blessings.

Unbeknown to Gibbs Abby was having similar thoughts, at least until Tony caught staring absent minded at Gibbs. The message of 'You day dreaming about anyone in particular or what?' earned him a smack round the face, leaving a smarting red mark from the impact.

"What exactly do you think you are doing?"

Also unbeknown to the group was that the director had decided to have a walk around the building.

"I was defending my self against a torrent of verbal crap, that this little piece of rubbish was spouting." No-one had quite seen this side of the normally bubbly Abby, not even Gibbs who was just as gob smacked as the rest of the office.

"And did you deserve this, slap?" The look on Abby's face was murderous, worst than Gibbs' without coffee.

"Yep, I deserved that and probably more as well. Sorry Abby."

"That's ok. Just don't do it again, or I'll be forced to use the photo from '89. You know, the one you thought you had got rid of from every place imaginable, except your roommate's sister. Pity I know her, ah Tony?" Yep he wouldn't be doing that one for a while.

"Now we have that sorted, may I borrow you for a moment or two Gibbs?" The two walked away and the office quickly returned to working, except Kate who was eyeing her friend.

"What exactly was that about? I mean what could Tony have done to piss you off that much?"

"He was making a indirect referral to your early conversation. Either that or he has a death wish." It was at that point McGee returned and wished he hadn't the atmosphere was like a brick, and he didn't have a clue why. Abby simply get out of his car and went and sat on Gibbs'.

The ride home was dreadful, full of silence, even the radio remained off. Once home Abby headed straight for the basement. Gibbs however headed upstairs to get changed into an old pair of trousers and a jumper. Then he went downstairs, got another cup and continued down to the basement. She was sat mostly in shadows, his mug in her hands already, the JD open on the side. After pouring himself a bit he joined her.

"Want to talk?" Her head rested on his shoulder, her left hand finding his.

"He wound me up and I snapped. And now I feel awful for it. He was only being himself, and I practical tore his head off for it."

"Well he must have been saying something to irritate you like that." He turned his head so he could see her better, she'd stated crying, so he put his arm around her and pulled her into a tight hug, not bothering about his clothes, they were old and it was for this reason he had put them on.

"It's nothing, really. I just feel sorry for him, that's all. He usually avoids me you know. But I was just there going no place else, who can blame him?"

They sat in silence for a while until an answer came to Gibbs.

"Why don't we move down to your lab? Get out of every-ones way?" Abby didn't answer, she'd fallen fast asleep, her breathing slow and steady. Smile he carried her up to bed and sat with her a while.

The next day Gibbs re-offered moving and Abby thought it was brilliant idea. McGee Looked shocked to see Gibbs and Abby walk straight past him, Gibbs grabbing the paperwork off his desk and continued towards the lab.

"Um, hey boss! Tony says he's going to be late today, something about yesterday afternoon."

"I figured that McGee." They left the younger agent looking more confused than a brainless snail working for NASA.

Abby was glad to be in her lab, with the machines humming and her music, even though not deafening, making itself present throughout the space occupied by her lab, office and the ballistics lab. The first thing she did was check if anything needed to run through the now fully awake machines. Only a couple of half hour jobs and an fingerprint match to be emailed to half a dozen people she'd never knew needed her help, the FBI being one and the CIA being another. Once these were done she decided to see what Gibbs was up to.

He was trying to get Kate to let go of Tony, who'd threaten that he'd done something to her car. It wasn't going well. In the end he told them both to come down to the lab, so he could knock both their heads together. They didn't bother, but Tony was limping for the rest of the day.

**AN:**** So what did Gibbs tell her? You'll have to keep reading.**


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Why do I even bother

**Disclaimer:**** Why do I even bother? Ditto the ditto.**

Tony came down near 1600, only to find the lab empty. He decided to try autopsy, at least there he might find a friendly conversation. But as he near the doors he heard Abby's voice.

"…You.' He actually said it."

"Well then my dear you should count yourself lucky, as far as I'm aware he never said it quite like that to any of the ex's. But I hope you know what you're doing, I mean look at what happen to Shannon, the only person he ever got truly close to, the others only saw the surface of him."

"Um, thanks Duck. But I don't intent on dieing any time soon, not without reviving myself once more." They both laughed. So the riddle that was Abby had just gotten a whole lot more complex. Time to retreat and assess the situation with this new information.

Inside autopsy both Ducky and Abby where unaware of their eavesdropper, so continued without concern.

"It really was a shame about Shannon and Kelly, they seemed to have been wonderful people. Kelly would have been his little starlet had she not been there."

"What happened to them?" The door opened at that moment to admit Gibbs. "They were killed by a drugs dealer. It was Shannon he was after, she'd seen a drugs deal that went wrong, but of cause he couldn't let anyone live who might one day put him in prison. I was on tour at the time. They never stood a chance." She went to him and hugged him: "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I joined NIS as it was called then, and found that piece of crap off the books. I didn't give him a chance either. One round through the skull, cleaned up my part and then tipped the police off anomalously. By that time nothing could be done about it. I stopped with NIS or NCIS as it is now, finding my place to shut the evil of the world up, righting the wrongs. As far as I can at least." Ducky had gotten a half full bottle of scotch out and handed a glass to Gibbs, who took it gratefully.

Tony sat at his desk thinking deeply, so deeply in fact that he didn't notice Kate trying to talk to him. In the end she dumped a cup of water onto him.

"HEY, what was that for?" Kate was smile ear-to-ear.

"You were staring at me, so I didn't know if it was me or something behind me you were smirking at."

"I was thinking…"

"So it was more constipation than smirking?"

"Ha, ha, ha. No actually I over heard something, which might prove delicious, if I can prove it."

"Well, are you going to share this massive thought you've had, or am I going to have to reboot your brain before you'll do that?" He simply smirked tapped the side of his nose and continued the paper work he was supposed to have completed hours ago.

Just his luck, he'd finally gotten somewhere with 'Project Snoop', as he was calling it, when they'd gotten a case. Typical, just typical, the story of his life that was, he tried to do something and got ordered to do something else. It would have wait now, he had to concentrate or he'd go straight through the floor of the burnt out building, it had been the home of a couple of marines, not rich enough to buy places of their own of shared ownership of this one whilst on land. The fire hadn't looked suspicious until the emergency crews found both men had been asleep, without appearing to have known about the inferno blazing around them.

The first creak made him wonder whether the whole place would come down on top of them, the second gave him goose bumps and the third was the herald of total chaos.

Kate was in front of him, checking out the easiest and safest ways in to the centre of the building when the floor started to give way, slowly at first, but then it got faster, then it just snapped. Kate went with it. The fall wasn't too bad, but the piece of wood through her leg was.

The emergency crews got her out, but they lost the bodies, the area was deemed too unsafe for agents to work it. Another barely touched case.

Her blood level was slowly going up, but she was deteriorating faster than they could help her. She died of severe blood poisoning and infection. The funeral was held only four days after she died, and her family were all there to say goodbye.

The team also said goodbye but they were made to feel slightly outcast by the rest of her family. It started to drizzle as they walked back to the cars; the weather seemed to be having a go at pathetic fallacy, and getting it spot on.

All thoughts of relationships went out of the window for the moment.

**An:**** Ok so I might not like Kate that much but I have toned it down quite a bit. So what will happen to the poor lovers who got together in the middle of a war basically? How I meant to know?**


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: ditto the ditto of the ditto

**Disclaimer:**** ditto the ditto of the ditto.**

Two months past and, just as thing where returning to normal, Director Morrow resigned to take up a new position elsewhere. Abby was still staying with Gibbs, though they had both agreed that until things settled again they would return to how it was before. This meant no more information for Tony to find to go in the 'Project Snoop' file. Instead he got his paper work done in record time, for him at least.

The weekend past without incident, Monday morning was less then quiet.

The moment he walked in Gibbs knew that something was up in the building. He didn't have to wait long to find out what it was causing the discord, in fact the problem walked up to his desk with slightly smug looking woman.

"Jethro, how nice to see you again. Got your own team now?"

"I always did have Jen. What are you doing here anyway?"

"I've appointed Director of NCIS. I would've thought that you'd have know."

"I did, but what I meant was what are you doing in front of my desk? And why is she smirking?"

"Oh, I nearly forgot. Jethro this is Officer Ziva David, she's here as an ambassador between Mossad and us. I'm assigning her to your team seeing as you have such high standards for your field agents. Ziva this is Special Agent Gibbs. Now play nicely, if there are any broken bones I'll you both responsible. But now I have to go, the FBI and CIA keep phoning." Jen walked away leaving the Gibbs and Ziva to stare it out between them.

"You can have that desk." He pointed to one next to McGee's, on the other side of a partition. She went over to it and sat down, not taking her eyes off of Tony once, as he was trying to sneak a shot of her with his camera.

"Mossad, ay?"

"Um huh, I'm one of their assassins. My aunt believed that I one day would be the best, but I got bored of proving this to the men in Israel, so I was sent here instead. It was Jen's idea; she was flying back to take over here and asked if I could join her, as ambassador. But I preferred Israel to this. And the men keep their feet to themselves." With that she lunged at Tony and grabbed the camera.

"Hey no fair and it's hands, not feet." She gave him a funny little look, it seemed to be a question so he answered: "You said '…keep their feet to themselves.' But it's actually '…keep their _hands_ to themselves.'"

"What ever it is it's a pain in the shoulder."

"Butt, its 'pain in the butt'" This time she just blanked him.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: You know the drill

**Disclaimer:**** You know the drill.**

An hour passed in near to complete silence; Tony perfecting his paper work avoiding skills, McGee fiddling with some wire, circuit boards and other little fiddly bits, trying to get some sort of reaction from the computer. Gibbs had not only got all his paper work done, but typed up half a page of a report. But he was getting bored, and low on coffee. Leaving the rest of the typing until later Gibbs got up and went for a walk down to Abby's lab. The stairs were nearly deserted as usual; even though it was slow the lift was the transport of choice around the floors of the building.

He could hear her, or her music/noise, before he was even half way down the stairs and it was a new noise by the sounds of it.

When he got closer he could tell it was even being tortured in English, rather some unknown language. He always carried earplugs, just in cause this ever happened. He found that the noise wasn't even coming from the CD player though. It was on the computer.

She jumped when he tapped her shoulder.

'_Turn it down'_, ASL was the only way he would be safe to talk to her without a loudspeaker and amps.

'_Why? We've both got earplugs in so what's the matter?'_ Typical Abby. _'Try because you can hear it all the way upstairs. And because I came to see if wanted to come for a walk.'_ This caught her attention. So she turned the volume down, and the conversation entered the audible audio frequency.

"Where to?" She knew where, she just wanted to be awkward. And Gibbs knew it. "It's a surprise, you wouldn't want ruin a surprise now would you?"

"Of course not." She took her lab coat off and removed her parasol from its peg. "Anyway I'll probably love it where ever it is we're going. Otherwise you wouldn't be taking me there." He laughed and led the way out of the lab and up the stairs.

In the lobby they met the Director, talking to a group of staff. The moment she saw them walk up the stairs she excused her self. She strolled over and looked the pair up and down.

"Jethro. And you must be Ms. Scuito, nice to met you." She held her hand out for Abby to shake. But the offer remained un-took.

Gibbs glanced between the pair of them and decided that he wouldn't like to see them fight.

"Was there anything you wanted Jen?" he knew she would have to correct him; she was the boss now, not him.

"It's Director, not Jen. That's after work hours." Abby saw the testing of the grounds, not that it was subtle. The bait was too strong to resist.

"Actually, Director, he's mine after work. Nice to met you though. You coming or what?" The sly smirk on her face made Gibbs chuckle, Abby had managed to put Jen in her place nicely. Shame it would probably offend her as well.

"Sorry Director. She does have a point." It only took a couple of good paces to catch up with Abby.

The street was pretty empty, so they walked together chatting about a case, but as they neared the coffee shop Gibbs slowed down and held on to Abby's arm. She knew what was coming; it had only been a matter of time. She'd hoped that the case would delay it, if only till they got home.

"Did you mean it back there?" They had come to a complete halt now.

"Yeah, why not? There's nothing stopping us, is there?" She eyed him. She saw the sparkle in his eyes.

"Just asking. I only wanted to know your opinion."

"That's ok then, isn't it?" As she spoke she slid her hand into his and held it tightly, he was hers now, as she his. Now all they had to do was fool Tony, McGee and Ziva. Ducky would know, he always knew. Even the first time, before Kate's death, he'd know.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:**** Yep, you know the drill.**

**An:**** I really hope you are enjoying it up until now. But the burning question is 'What will happen next?' Well instead of reading this why don't you get on and read the next chapter? PS; My sister says hi to you all. ****PPS; Well done to all those Olympians who took part in the games, especially Mr. Phelps. Eight gold's!!**

While Gibbs waited for the coffee and Caff-Pow Abby sat at a table, untangled her MP-3 and started listening to the song she'd had on early. Gibbs wasn't the only one to give her a weird look as she hummed along. She took an earpiece out when he sat down. "What is that?"

"What the song?" He nodded "Oh, it's from the Eurovision song contest. Why?"

"The what?"

"The Eurovision song contest is basically the country's of Europe getting together to see who can sing the best. This is Finland's entry Missa Miehet Ratsastaa, by Sebastien Tellier."

"Hmm." Gibbs smiled and glanced at his watch.

"Time we got back. Come on." They left, not noticing the second floor gossiper, who'd just phoned someone, someone very interested in what he had to say.

The cell rang, for a moment it seemed no one would answer it, but then a hand reached over the side of the partition, grabbed it and disappeared back over, its owner baring it away to the photocopier, which was spewing out copies of the paper for the past two weeks.

"DiNozzo."

"Hi, it's Jack. I don't if this would interest you, but your boss and Abby have just left together, and as far as I can tell they came together as well."

"Brilliant, just what I needed! Thanks. And remember, keep your gob shut about this, ok?"

"Yeah, I know; gob shut, eye's 'n' ear's open."

"Good. See ya!" Tony turned around to see what was taking the photocopier so long, and found Ziva lent against it. He tried to ignore her and retrieve the copies but she sidestepped, blocking his way.

"What was that about?"

"A private matter. Which in cause you don't get the hint means nothing for you. Now shift." She just gave him a quizzical look and carried on towards the stairs and her way to MTAC. It seemed to Tony that everyone had secrets these days. Perhaps he should start a folder on her as well, hey, why not start on McGee, just for good measure?

Talking of folders, he really ought to get back to work, or risk the wrath of Gibbs.

She couldn't sit still, she wanted to race up to the roof and scream as loud as she could. It looked as if she had finally gotten her heart's desire; Special-Agent Jethro Gibbs. And he was all hers. She'd make sure of that.

He'd hardly sat down before his phone rang.

"Gibbs."

"Yes, I guessed seeing as I phoned you."

"What can I do for you Director?"

"Why don't come up to MTAC and explain Ms. Scuito's behaviour?" She didn't feel that calling her Abby was entirely appropriate; this was a government agency, not a nightclub.

"Sure, give me a minute to detach DiNozzo from me conversations and I'll be right up." The phones went dead at both ends.

"Tony, what do I do when you evesdrop?"

"Erm, you generally slap the evesdropper round the head. Why?"

"Because I trying to see if the message is getting through to you. Obviously not, eh?" Tony tensed waiting for the head slap, which never came.

MTAC was dark when Gibbs entered, not that it was ever anywhere near light, and there was a man on the screen, talking in very fast in Jewish. Taking a seat next to Jen he saw that the person talking to the man was none other than Ziva.

"Who's that?" The question was asked in a stage whisper.

"That is Deputy-Director David, he works for Mossad."

"David?" The name meant something he was sure, but the reason had slipped his mind at that moment in time.

"Yes, Ziva's father. He has very kindly had someone watch the airports in Israel, in case a friend of the FBI's goes walk about out there. And I have no clue why I told you that."

"I always was good Jen. Anyway what did you want?" Ziva and her father now seemed to have started arguing instead of discussing matters.

"One it's Director. And two: what was that with Ms. Scuito? Have you given up on rule 12?"

"No, not entirely. But she can be a bit sharp sometimes. You'll get used to her. Though a free piece of advice for you; don't piss her off, you'll soon find that if she stops work in a form of protest, then the whole of the office will join her. That includes the entire of my team, American or not. Otherwise I don't see any problems. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." Ziva had watched most of the exchange, after cutting her father off about, for some unknown reason, her shoes. She decided to ask about this Scuito person and what this rule was.

The air outside the stuffy MTAC was welcome as Gibbs and then Ziva left, the latter hoping to get away without being collared by the earlier. It didn't work.

"Deputy-Director, eh? Bet he was trilled that his daughter had chosen, perhaps one of the most dangerous jobs possible. Well based on how many of that profession are murdered each year."

"He was far from thrilled. He tried to get me to see sense, but I just hung in and that made him see that I wasn't going anywhere." Gibbs laughed at her mistake, and she just grew annoyed at him, not understanding her error.

"What?"

"You said that you 'hung in', it's actually 'hung on'."

"Oh."


	15. Chapter 15

Tony had been busy annotating a file, which he expertly shoved into his draw when Gibbs walked past

If you need a disclaimer, even now, there is one a couple of pages before this one. Ok?

Tony had been busy annotating a file, which he expertly shoved into his draw when Gibbs walked past. The other work on his desk looked like a bomb had hit a paper factory. There were even an odd bit of burning to the edge of one piece of paper he was suppose to be rewriting.

"Having fun DiNozzo? Or do you need a bit more time to sort your desk out so you can go home and explain to daddy why you got fired, again?"

"Erm, no I think I'll fine with doing paperwork." Tony started to sort through the debris and shrapnel from the blast of the paperwork bomb. Ziva snickered as she finished tidying her own desk.

"Where's McGee?" His paperwork was done and his desk tidy.

"Abby's lab, I think. She phoned rabbiting on about something or other; you know what she's like, so I gave the phone to the Scuito fan club next door. Then he left, saying something about too many Caff-Pow's."

"Figures." Gibbs turned to leave, but found his way blocked by McGee. He looked at McGee, who looked back at him. Gibbs raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"Erm, boss? You I'm only a messenger don't you?" Gibbs nodded. "Well I think you'd better go down to Abby's lab before the director or anyone does." This raised suspicions.

And McGee added something quietly so only Gibbs could hear what was said: "I think she might have been at Ducky's port. Or at least spilt it down herself." Gibbs brushed past the younger agent and practically flew out of sight down the stairs.

"Do I want to know what was about?" McGee simply shook his head at Tony.

The first give away was that there was no music playing, the second was the lights where out, the third; Abby was laid on the floor, with a newspaper over her head.

"And what is that supposed to do for a totally inebriated young lady such as your self?" He said it just loud enough to make her flinch visibly, but not loud enough to really hurt her head.

She slurred every other word together, and even managed to make some sort of sense; "I didn't know that it was alcoholic?" It was the worst excuse for an unasked question ever.

"Umm hmm, and what exactly did you think you were drinking?"

"Err, JD?"

"So that isn't alcoholic?"

"Err, yeah it is. But who said anything about it not being?" Gibbs just laughed softly, his blue, blue eyes twinkling, even in the gloom. "Gibbs?"

"Umm?"

"You know that I love your hair don't you?" She'd removed the paper. He nodded. "And your eyes?" Again a nod from her sliver haired, blue-eyed fox. "And you in general?" This time however he didn't nod, he sat down and stared straight into her green eyes. She'd let her hair down, so it had settled around her head. He brushed a stray lock off of her face.

"Yeah I know. But do you know that I love you and all of your quirks?" She was about to nod, when she was overcome with a feeling of nausea, and was promptly sick, all down her self and on Gibbs' trousers.

Back in the bullpen Ziva decided to ask McGee about what she'd heard. Tony had gone to find paperclips and sticky labels.

"What about these rules of his? Like what's rule 12?"

"Ironic or what? Rule 12 is the one I would advise you avoid braking, at all costs. 'Never date a co-worker.' You stick to that and Gibbs won't kill you. That and the little un-stated one of 'Do not mess with Abby.' That one just ends in you being shipped off to Ducky." He glanced at her and a question of his own smashed into his brain; "Why? Where'd you hear of it?"

"The Director asked Gibbs if he'd given up on it when they were talking."

"Talking about what?"

"Her."

"Never! You must have misheard them. Those two would never get together! I mean Gibbs' type are red heads, who are quite happy to clean him out of money and god only knows what typical type Abby goes for. I mean she went out with me for a time, me!"

"There is definitely something going on between them. And I bet Tony knows how it is." She left a very confused McGee in the lab and ran up the stairs to find Tony. By the time the pair of conspirers got back they were talking through all the evidence they had collected between them. It was now overwhelmingly obvious that there was something going on. It was just getting them to admit to it. And Tony had plan.

Autopsy was cool and quiet, and there was an interesting pattern on the ceiling; she was taking her time to name all the little dots after the stars she had grown up with. The doors opened and Tony, Ziva and McGee wandered in, making a B-line straight for her.

"Hey Abbs, do you know something that we don't?" Tony knew it was a perfect way to get her to confess. "Something big?"

And she fell straight into the trap; "Yep, it's so big it would blow your head clean off." She smiled at him. "I'll tell you if you want."

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

"I have an IQ the size of England and yet I still fall in love with my boss. How amazingly crazy is that? It's not as though he's my age either, though that doesn't say anything about me. Or about him 'cause he usual goes for freaking redheadeds. But, shh, it's a secret." Even Ducky looked up in wonder. She had just admitted the biggest, juiciest worm of gossip in the whole history of America.

"Whoa, did she just say what I thought she said?" Even Tony wasn't expecting the reply they had gotten out of her.

"Yep, she just admitted that she and Gibbs are practically together." Ziva had picked up on the whole thing very quickly.

"Wrong, actually you're all about a day behind, well it would be more like two months, two weeks and a day behind." Ducky scared them all sneaking up on them, but it was the sight of Gibbs stood in the doorway that scared them the most.

"Well done boss! I have to say she's much better than a redhead." Then a thought struck him; "Ohh, McGee. Ohh, I am so sorry, I bet you're heart's broken!" Tony was taking it to town, and further.

"No, actually I think it's rather fitting of them. The best man won the lady's heart." Gibbs took McGee's offered hand and smiled gratefully. Tony however was trying to find anything that he could say to get McGee to say 'what he really felt'.

"DiNozzo. Paperwork. Now. Your job depends on it being done today." Tony was gone before Gibbs even had time to breathe. Ziva just laughed at him, until she was sent off with McGee to get dinner.

"So what have you been doing to end up down here?"

"Umm, I dunno? 'Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave had twenty-three sons and named them all Dave?'" Gibbs laughed and shook his head. "'Well she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.'" Before she could spout anymore Gibbs put his hand over her mouth.

"You know that you're going to have the queen of all hangovers tomorrow?" a muffled 'mm-hmm' came from Abby.

"Good cause I wouldn't want you to say that I didn't warn you." With that he left.


	16. Chapter 16

Not even bothering

**Not even bothering.**

Yay, chapter 17, NOW PLEASE GIVE ME SOME REVIEWS!!

The word had spread somehow that Gibbs had broken his own rule and started going out with Abby. And now he kept getting people randomly wander through and giving him 'thumbs up's and one terrified guy even went as far as to squeak well done at him, before scuttling off to the nearest bathroom. Tony had been sent home for being unable to keep his gob shut.

Abby had fallen asleep before too long, and now Ducky couldn't help but keep glancing over at her. Why hadn't he noticed that she had nicked a bottle of his port from right under his nose? Come to think of it was it even his she'd nicked? Checking the hiding place of the odd bottle he found that both of the current beverages were accounted for. So how had she gotten the bottle in without Gibbs noticing? If fact how had she even dared to drink whilst at work? The anger in the question took Ducky over, he needed answers and he needed them _now._ He stormed up to the bullpen, and stared Gibbs straight in the face.

"Did you know? Did you know that she'd brought a whole bottle of some sort of drink into this building?"

"No, I didn't but I wouldn't have thought that she'd have done something as stupid as that. At least not until tonight." Ducky saw the concern in his eyes, heard the silent terror in his voice, here was a man that scared the hardest of criminals. And he was silently falling to pieces over his girl, his lab rat, his Abigail Scuito. Then it was obvious, his man was absolutely terrified by her actions. He just didn't know what to do.

Tony was furious that he'd missed the show when McGee told him the next day, although only three people had understood the exchange. Abby had skipped work that morning, on the account that she had a 'heavy metal' headache, or something that resembled one. But she managed to pull herself together enough to make an appearance after lunch. Just. She woke her babies up and started a few things running, and then sat and thought, long and hard, about why she'd drunk the whole bottle of, she couldn't even remember what it was she'd drunk, or for that matter what she'd do with the bottle. Surely if she'd drunk a whole bottle of something she'd be unable to hide the evidence? The bins were empty, but then there would have been emptied last night. But wouldn't the presence of a bottle have raised some interesting questions? So it couldn't have been in the normal trash, so what about the biohazard trash? That was emptied every day, the same as the other stuff. People didn't tend to stick their noses into bags marked biohazard, unless they were looking for something. But the smell of alcohol would have wafted from it.

The whole thing was giving her another headache. One thing was for certain; she had not knowingly drunk the alcohol. That was something to tell Gibbs, but first she had something to do.

A black cloud hung over Gibbs' desk, the computer had decided that today it would go on the blink, his good pen had stopped working and he couldn't talk to Abby without asking her why. So when she stood in front of him she was quick to get to the point; "I didn't drink yesterday. I know I didn't touch a drop. Well apart from that 100 pure alcohol I used to fuel an alcohol burner." Gibbs sat and looked at her for a moment, digesting this garbled mess.

"So if you didn't drink anything yesterday, can you explain why McGee found totally plastered?"

"No but that is why you have such things as 'investigators'. You might have heard of them, along with a thing called 'Closed Circuit Television' or 'CCTV'. It records things, and then you can watch it back at a later date." Tony held his breath as he waited for Gibbs to explode. But he was disappointed when Gibbs just laughed at her.

"So you think that someone slipped you a whole bottle of something?" She nodded vigorously, her hair bobbing up and down. "Ok, how do you think that this slipper of alcoholic beverages did this unspeakable deed?" He was truly intrigued at this theory.

"My Caff-Pow's, I only had two off of you and one from Tony yesterday, that leaves four not from you guys. By the way, hi there newbie." She addressed Ziva without even looking at her.

"You know if I had the cups from yesterday I could prove I'm right." Tony had gotten up and walked across to them, now he stood looking from one to the other.

"You know I wouldn't be surprised at that, after all, who was it that said she had an IQ the size of England?" Tony couldn't resist it; it just had to be said.

"Tony? Have you noticed over the last few days that you keep getting threatened with getting fired? Well this is your official warning."

"From who?"

"Me, pea-brain. Now shut it!"

This caused laughter from the other end of the bullpen, where Ducky and the new Director were stood.

"Now then what is this I hear? Employees of my getting drunk at work?" She had a sly sort of smile.

"I'm sorry Abigail, but I had to tell her. Agency Policy."

"It's ok Ducky, I learnt that the first time round." They both smiled at that memory. "Anyway I didn't drink yesterday. We were about to find out which of the Caff-Pow's I drank yesterday had alcohol in them."

"I'm sorry am I missing something? Or did it sound like she is up to something?"

"Welcome to the D.C. office of the worlds maddest Agency. To be accepted here you must be: smart, funny and pretty as hell," Tony pointed at Abby, "A computer geek," McGee, "A doctor with non-responsive patients," Ducky, "A semi-ex marine on some sort of crazy mission," Gibbs, who quickly head slapped him, "Or totally hot, like me!" McGee tried not to laugh but went a lovely shade of pink doing it, Ducky and Gibbs had more luck, but Abby just gave them disapproving looks.

"Tony don't take any notice of them, they are all just silly little children." Abby took Tony's side, giving him a hug.

"Says you."

"And that is meant to mean what?"

"That you can not possible that the low ground on what is childish and what is not." This caused more sniggering.

"Erm, Ziva? It's 'high ground' not 'low ground'." This earned Tony a look that should have killed him.

"What ever it is she can not take it!"

**An: Ok I have halted it there before it gets so long it becomes a story on it's own. Now, ON WITH THE SHOW!!**


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own NCIS, or its characters

**Disclaimer:**** I do not in any way shape or form own NCIS, or its characters. Though I do borrow them, else you wouldn't be reading this would you?**

By the time they had convinced Ziva not to kill Tony for pulling a face at her Abby had gone back to her lab and someone had collared the Director.

A machine was beeping as Gibbs, Tony and McGee entered the lab. Abby was nowhere in sight, but her music was on. Then she came bouncing her way through the doors to her 'office', she tapped a button on the machine now having a beeping fit at anyone who would listen, and sitting on her stool quieten the music.

"Now then, good and bad news. See if you can guess which is which. Option one; there was alcohol present in three of the four cups. Option two; but it wasn't enough to suggest anything above slightly wobbly walking. And I now have reason to think it wasn't alcohol, or at least not just alcohol."

"And you have determined this how?" She eyed the new comer with dislike.

"Sorry not too good with names, but I 'determined' it the only way I know how; science. Well I didn't, but that very expensive machine Tony is lent against, did." Tony sprang to stand on his own feet when she said this. Ziva however looked unsatisfied with this conclusion.

"How many languages do you speak?" The question threw Ziva for a moment, but she quickly answered; "Seven, why?"

"What about the unspoken languages?"

"Err, no. Again why?" Instead of answering her Abby looked at Gibbs.

'When is she leaving?'

'Don't know. Why?'

'I don't like her.'

'Abby just put up with her, please? For me?'

'For you?' He nodded. She smiled, put on a smile and returned to plain old English; "I got to that answer by running my blood, looking for anything which is not normal in human blood. What is your name?"

"Ziva David." Abby gave her thumbs up and returned to making sense of lots of numbers and letters.

"Ok so we've established how you got the answers, now what are the answers?" Gibbs didn't want to stand around all day whilst Abby decided whether or not see could put up with Ziva.

"Arhh, why can't I just keep prattling on like normal? In fact forget that. Anyway I found absolutely twiddly diddly, squiddly piddly squit, which I was sorta expecting. I mean if you were going to drug some one you wouldn't use something that could be traced after twenty-four hours max, would you? But what about something that erased everything not normally found in blood? So it would erase all traces of everything admitted to the body in the twenty-four hour window, including probably more pain-killers than is quite sane." She waited for it to dawn on someone what she had just said. She didn't have too long to wait. But who answered was a surprise; no one had heard the doors open and close, or notice Ducky come to stand with them.

"You know there are tests being done to find a way of doing just that, my dear, but I don't think that they'd gotten that far yet. Though you never know with privet companies." Ducky looked at the computer screen carefully. "But it seems that someone will be a very rich person before to much longer. There is absolutely nothing-unusual showing up. This would put the official governing bodies of sporting events under great pressure to find a way to detect and combat this new drug." Ducky seemed to be absolutely intrigued by the results, but Gibbs wasn't. "But it could also give the criminal world the upper edge. If it covers over drugs right from the moment it gets in to the blood then the amount of date rapists will rise, and rise fast."

Gibbs started for the door, but a shout made him pause.

"I'm sorry."


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: Err, do ya all need this anymore

**Disclaimer:**** Err, do ya all need this anymore? Or can I use the space to do this; Hello to all you dedicated readers and anyone who is a little confused about where they are!!**

Gibbs started for the door, but a shout made him pause.

"I'm sorry."

The shout had come from Abby. Sensing it to be an inappropriate time to be present in the lab Ducky ushered the rest of the team out.

"What?"

"Look I know that saying sorry is a sign of weakness. But it was my fault for drinking it. I mean it wasn't as if I couldn't have smelt the alcohol. You could have stripped paint with the fumes."

"And?"

"And I'm sorry for the lack of awareness on my part."

"And that was all I needed to hear." Gibbs smiled at her. His blue eyes met her equally green ones; the smile seemed to reside even there. Acting upon instinct he lent in and kissed her. She drew back.

"What?" Gibbs sounded truly puzzled.

"We agreed. Rule 2; we keep it out of the lab/office."

"That is not a rule. That is a guideline to be used as such." He tried to be indignant, but it didn't quite work, so came out more humours.

"If it's a guideline why have you stuck to it until now?"

"Because, obviously, no-one has ever told you how cute you are when trying to apologise. And Ducky is keeping the kindergarten under control upstairs." Despite her best efforts Abby could not keep a straight face.

"I am not cute, I'm adorable. You'd have to be blind not to see that." Gibbs nodded and kissed her again, and instead of pulling away she deepened the kiss. Then the phone rang.

"Damn." Abby picked the receiver up. "Hiya you have reached the Million Dollar phone in, do you know the answer to today's question?"

"Err, no, but I do, know that Gibbs is still in your lab." McGee's garbled message was cut off when Tony audibly head slapped him. "On second thoughts; never mind." The phone clicked off.

"What was that about?" Standing behind her while he talked he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Dunno. But who cares? You can sort it out. You might want to give Tony a head slap from me though." They paused for a moment, savouring each other's company.

"Fishing." The sudden outburst startled Gibbs.

"Ah?"

"I like to go fishing. One of the dullest sports on the planet, but I like to go every now and again. To clear my head and get some space."

"Oh. You it doesn't have to be dull, Shannon and I used to go fishing after seeing her parents."

"Gibbs did you just say what I thought you did?"

"Depends. If you thought you heard me talking about Shannon, then yes, you heard correctly."

"But you never talk about them, ever. Not even with me or Ducky." She felt Gibbs shrug. He took her hand and pulled her out of her chair. He pulled her near, as if to kiss her again, but instead whispered in her ear;

"It's time I moved on from them, they're gone. There is nothing I can do, except hope they are smiling down upon us." And then he did kiss her.

When he drew away he added out loud; "I know that they didn't like any of the others, but I have a good feeling about you." He wiped the tear from her cheek, gave her a quick and then lead her out of the lab and into the elevator. He hadn't let go of her hand yet.


	19. Chapter 19

**Trickle beeble bop, I have a green top,**

**It is so green my family use me as the Christmas tree!!**

"Duck I thought that you were supposed to keep the kindergarteners out of trouble!"

"I would have, but I was curious as well. You know a young lady used to have to have a chaperon to be regarded as anything worth marriage. We were simply acting as modern chaperons."

"Well said Ducky!" "Absolutely correct!" "My father didn't trust me with boys, until my aunt took control of running the house." Tony and McGee had confirmed what Ducky had said, but Ziva had decided to keep off of sides, and fences, and gone with her own life.

"What? Shut up Ziva." Tony received a punch on the arm, which left it dead for the next two hours.

"Well I don't have a clue what you are all going on about, so go back to work before I sack the lot of you." There was a mad scramble to get back to desks. Ducky grabbed a nearby chair and sat on it by McGee's desk.

"Good now I am going for coffee, Abby you stop here and watch these three," He indicated Tony, Ziva and McGee, "If one of them so much as sneezes in the wrong way tell me when I get back. But don't, for heavens sake, keep phoning me." He walked to the lift and disappeared into it. Abby made herself comfortable in Gibbs' chair. She grabbed a note pad and pen from the desk, and went about watching them whilst doodling.

Five minutes past before Tony piped up:

"What was going on down there?" Everyone looked at him, so he expanded the question to; "What were you two talking about?"

"How did you know that we were talking? You were up here." And then it dawned on her. "With a computer geek and computers. Thanks 'not-jealous-McGee'."

"Sorry, but he did bully me into it." Tony was about to defend himself when Abby held up a hand.

"Ducky, kindly enlighten me as to what went on after you left my lab."

"Certainly. We came up here and Tony was messing around with something on the computer. Then he looked across at McGee who did something and then the feed from the camera came up on the screen. We saw from where you two were talking, just before Gibbs said something that made you smile. The rest you can guess."

"Thank you." So they hadn't seen what had happened just moments before that.

"So you going to tell us what happened or not?" Tony was getting impatient, and even Ziva had stopped pretending she wasn't listening.

"No Tony I am not. Well not unless you can tell me what Dr. Seuss's fully name was." Tony shrugged and made for the computer, but stopped when McGee answered; "Theodor Suess Geisel."

"Yeah, what he said! Now tell us!"

"I said I would if you could answer me, not McGee."

"Ok, try another."

"When was 'And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street' first published?"

"Erm, nineteen-forty-two?"

"Nope, nineteen-thirty-seven. Try this one; what was 'The Cat in the Hat' the first of?"

"A career?"

"Is that seriously your answer?" Tony nodded. "Well then you're wrong. It was the first book in a range of early learning books."

"Kelly liked them?" Gibbs nodded. And Tony looked bewildered.

"Shut your mouth DiNozzo, you'll be catching flies in it next." Gibbs had come back unusually quickly, almost suspiciously quick. But he had his coffee, so no one said anything.

Almost everyone had gone back to work, Ducky had returned to Autopsy, an hour later. Only Abby had remained. She was now playing tic-tac-toe with Gibbs, and would have lost if his phone hadn't rung.

"Gibbs." He put his cross in the bottom left square; Abby swiftly put a circle in the top right and joined the row.

"I know. I've just phoned down to Ms. Scuito's lab, but I got no reply. Can you tell me why that is?" The Director did her best disapproving voice.

"Yeah, Jen, I can tell you why that is." Gibbs wasn't going to play ball without a fight before hand.

"Are you going to tell me where she is and why?"

"No, but I can pass on a message if you like. Or I can tell her that you don't appreciate her being up here and that you'd prefer it if she stopped in her lab, so that if you ever decide to phone her, for no apparent reason, she can answer the phone." He put the phone on to loudspeaker.

"No Jethro, I wanted to know where she was because her budget sheets are out by about fifty Dollars."

"How many sheets of budgeting have you got?"

"Ms. Scuito?"

"No. Now could you answer the question?"

"I have four sheets."

"Yeah, there's your problem. You've missing a sheet, you see I either did it on five sheets or on four, and five is a much nicer number. But no number is quite as nice as the number thirteen."

"Ms. Scuito…"

"I have told you that I am not Ms. Scuito. That is my mother."

"Ok, Abigail…"

"Only Ducky calls me that, well and my aunt, who had the worst cause of female moustache ever, she won the annual moustache competition four times in a row."

"How about Abby?"

"Sorry close friends and family only."

"Well I'm running out of polite things to call you."

"That's good it means I can put the phone down, 'Cause I never talk to rude people. Bye!" And she did indeed hang up on the Director.


	20. Chapter 20

Gulp, gulp, swim, swim. 'Err, I wonder where I am.' Gulp, gulp, swim, swim.

Signed: Eric the goldfish.

The car journey home that night was very quiet, Gibbs was thinking and Abby was worrying.

The Director had told her that if she had any more trouble from Abby then she would have no option that to rethink her place at NCIS. In other words misbehave and Abby would get the sack. Not fair at all, she was being picked on by a red headed freakiod who wanted Gibbs for herself.

Well tough, she couldn't have him.

Gibbs however was thinking about fishing, he wondered whether the place Shannon and him used to go was still there. He decided to find out.

The next morning it was raining, flooding, bucketing, raining cats and dogs.

And McGee drove into a tree on the way to work, so he was even later than the rest of the team. He wasn't hurt, just a graze on his face from a piece of glass and a black eye where a branch from the tree had hit him. He'd given up with the car, optioning to get a new one, rather then pay for the ridiculous amounts of work to fix it.

And then another tragedy struck, one that would affect every person who came into contact with Gibbs or Abby that day; the coffee and Caff-Pow dealers flooded. Nobody quite knew what to do, no one had every seen both Gibbs and Abby without their favourite drinks before, and they didn't want to see it ever, full stop, end of matter. But their wishes meant nothing to the weather.

The mood-darken even farther when Abby found the Director had cut her budget for the next quarter.

After fuming about it for a full hour, by the end of which only Gibbs was left in the bullpen, Abby decided to go down to see Ducky.

Dinner was a mute state of a fare, it was Tony's turn to fetch the food and the rest were tying to get every thing done quickly so they could go home.

Gibbs had finished with his paper work and had turned his attention back to fishing. Reaching into the bottom drawer of his desk he pulled out a phone book. Flicking through it he found the page he was looking for and scribbled the number down on a scrap of paper. The elevator carried only Tony when it arrived.

"Hey boss, here." Gibb was handed something wrapped in what looked to be oiled tissue paper. When he raised an eyebrow at Tony all he got was a shrug.

Half way between floors Gibbs flicked the switch. He quickly dialled the number and listened as it rang.

"Hello, Marvin speaking."

"Hmm, you've cut your hair and shaved since I last phoned?"

"Yep, as per your instructions. So what do you want on such a fine day?"

"You still own that nice little place?"

"Why would I sell the most profitable water hole in this 'ere area?"

"Then I think you know." Marvin paused and then rustling could be heard.

"You still hold the deed to that place of yours?"

"Why would I sell the most isolated private cabin in the area?"

"Taking your point. I'll open the gates for eight, so long as I can get up the road without a canoe."

"Ok. Don't tell anyone who calls I'm coming." A grunt was emitted from the man. "Twenty hundred hours sharp." He hung up and, as he slid his phone into his pocket, flicked the switch again.


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own NCIS or its characters.**

**AN:**** Hey!! You there stop looking at this and read the damn story!!**

The whole way home Abby was trying to guess where Gibbs would take her. Even once in the house she continued to shout ideas to him, but he rejected all of the possibilities. Gibbs was packed and making something to eat within half an hour, Abby however was going through all of her clothes deciding what to take.

When she finally appeared the rain had lulled a bit. Dinner was jacket potatoes with cheese.

The roads were full of rush hour traffic, making progress slow, but it didn't matter, the time alone gave them a chance to share some rarely found silence. Even at home there was very rarely complete silence, there always seemed to be something on; a radio, CD player, TV, filling the quiet with noise, but here there was only the noise of the cars and the occasional siren, unavoidable noises. Gibbs turned the car off at a store and told Abby to wait in the car.

A few minutes later he came back with a couple bags of groceries. After putting these in the back of the car, he started it up again and rejoined the lessening queues of traffic. Once they were out of town they headed northwest, and after about an hour Gibbs steered the car down a lesser-used track. It seemed to be well cared for, but still obviously little used.

A gate was set a little way along the track, and sitting on the gate was a stumpy man in a bright yellow coat. As they neared he jumped down with surprising agility for his height and plumpness. He swung the gate open wide, and approached the car. Gibbs wound the window down and the man smiled in at them.

"Hey, long time no see. Would you mind giving me a lift up to my hut? My feet are playing up something awful." He looked sincerely hopeful.

"Yeah, why don't you come up with us and we can catch up?"

"Urm, well I have to get up in the morning to go and fetch my daughter-in-law from town."

"I've got brandy. Not the cheap stuff either."

"I can always tell her I'll be later than I thought." He closed the gate and jumped into the car.

After about thirty seconds he carefully reached into the bag and quietly pulled the bottle out. He slid it neatly into a pocket and fastened it up. "Actually I might get out at mine, long day, lots of driving to do tomorrow. I'm sure you understand."

"Yeah, come up sometime." Gibbs pulled the car up under some trees and the man, now very protective of his pocket jumped out of the car, gave Gibbs a wave and ran off up a path between the trees.

As he pulled off Gibbs glanced at Abby, to find her almost dying from withheld laughter.

"Umm?" The simple questioning tone was enough to set her off laughing. She tried to calm herself down, but it took ten minutes for her to even contemplate talking.

"It's just… you know… he was just so funny! It was like a comedy show! And did he really think that we won't notice him going though the shopping bags?"

"There's only one fault with Marvin Smith. And it's that he is an absolutely drunkard. Well that and the fact he has no memory that his son and daughter-in-law live in Germany now."

"Oh. So the bottle of brandy was?"

"Payment for opening the gate."

"Oh. So why are we here?"

"You'll see."


End file.
